Fan Reaction

I love the concise, powerful way Vivian Gates writes, but I also wish she didn't write so many a/u themes. However, the a/u story "From Choice" (GREATER CALIFORNIA K/S) is one of my favorite of that genre. I also think Truth's A Nail of Iron" (NOME 7) is particularly memorable, and her most recent story, "A Human Thing to Do" (KSX II), may have been her best ever. [1]

I have a number of favorite writers, for a number of different reasons, and Vivian Gates is right up there at the top of my list. This is not to say that I like all of her stories-- I hate "Jealousy" and several others have not fit my preferred view of K/S (Kirk and Spock happily loving each other). But all of her stories are well written, and the characters in them are always believable. She's written K&S from many different points of view, all of which have validity. Best of all, her K&S are always very masculine, yet show intense feeling for each other. And she writes great erotic scenes, too! Thank you, Vivian, for many hours of reading pleasure. [2]

Vivian Gates Signs Off

In 1986, due in part to disagreements over the editing and printing of The Air is the Air in Alien Brothers, Vivian Gates printed copies and offered it to fandom, saying it was the "last Vivian Gates story."

“The Air is the Air” is a little depressing there towards the end, but it was originally written as that the ending would be a spring-board for a sequel. Sort of a figure-out-how-to-get-Kirk-out-of-this challenge. I submitted to an editor I didn’t not know (never do that) from which I later withdrew the story. There isn’t time to go into the whole convoluted tale, but the upshot is, the editor refuses to release it. I feel I have a right to do what I want with my story. What I want to do with it now is to give it to fandom. This is free. Make any copies you want. Send it to other fans. Reprint it anywhere you want. Write sequels that get Kirk and Spock out of this situation. Pass it on or toss it in the trash. This is the last Vivian Gates story. – Vivian Gates, April 1986

Vivian Gates Signs On for One More Story

In 1999, she wrote this introduction to a story Transfer of Affection, she'd written for Encore, a zine focused on BNF writers who'd left fandom or had not written for a long time:

K/S finally drove me crazy. Well, not K/S, exactly. Some of the readers found my stories where I used a third party or someone other that Kirk or Spock to Illustrate some aspect of the K/S relationship rather — uh, odd. Then, some editorially bad moments happened one after another. Ever have an editor return a story to you—and she wasn't the editor you'd sent it to? And there was one who dabbled in blackmail, and another who kept a story for four years, and at that point I found a fandom which Didn't Have Editors At All. I, uh ... jumped ship. After almost 40 stories, I, who once scorned fans who left the one true fandom, went over the wall.
I left behind one K/S story that had never been published. After the editor raked it over the coals — quite rightly, I must admit, although I went 'ouch! ouch!' at the time — had put in in the drawer to let it sit six months as the writer's manuals suggest. The poor thing was there over ten years, until the very kind Encore invitation arrived. So I dusted off the general idea and sat down to see if there was one more K/S story left in the old gal. It about killed me. After at this time. It turned out to be much harder to catch the voice' of the characters — and Kirk is harder than Spock. Fortunately, it turned out I had a good editor to help with the fiddly bits.